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Stem Cells and Cancer Stem Cells and Cancer Cancer Education Project Stem Cells and Cancer Overview: This series of activities is designed to introduce students to the theory that some cancers arise from cancer stem cells. This theory provides a possible explanation for why cancers reoccur after cancer treatment. It also provides insights that may lead to new types of chemotherapy drugs. • Part 1: Stem Cells and Cancer PowerPoint (40 minutes) Students view a PowerPoint presentation that introduces stem cell biology and shows ways that cancer stem cell research might lead to more effective cancer therapy treatments. Students answer questions as they view the PowerPoint. Then they create a cartoon strip to illustrate their understanding of cancer stem cells. • Part 2: The Bad Seed: Rare stem cells appear to drive cancers (20 minutes) Students read a brief article that introduces stem cell biology and explains how cancer stem cell research might lead to more effective cancer therapy treatments. Students answer questions based on this article. This activity may be done in class or for homework. • Part 3: Plant Derivative Attacks the Roots of Leukemia (20 minutes) Students read a brief article on the development of a potential chemotherapy agent that specifically targets cancer stem cells. Students answer questions based on this article. This activity may be done in class or for homework. • Part 4: Clinical Trials: Parthocet (40 minutes) Students answer questions about the design of a large-scale, randomized, double-blind clinical trial to determine if Parthocet (a fictitious chemotherapy drug) is safe and effective. Life Sciences Learning Center – Cancer Education Project 1 Copyright © 2007, University of Rochester May be copied for classroom use Stem Cells and Cancer Teacher Instructions - Part 1 Stem Cells and Cancer PowerPoint Presentation Students view a PowerPoint presentation that introduces stem cell biology and shows ways that cancer stem cell research might lead to more effective cancer therapy treatments. 1. Review the PowerPoint presentation in the file titled “Stem Cells and Cancer”. Note that further information is provided in the notes section for each slide. 2. Decide whether you will provide students with handout sheets printed to accompany the PowerPoint presentation. 3. Provide each student with one copy of Stem Cells and Cancer questions to accompany the PowerPoint presentation. 4. Provide paper and colored markers for students to use when creating their cartoon strip. 5. Find additional teacher (or student) information on cancer stem cell research at: • Stem Cells Seen Driving Tumors http://www.stronghealth.com/services/cancer/images/BostonGlobe-CJordon.pdf • Cancer Killer: Radical researchers are onto a controversial idea for stopping cancer—go after stem cells http://www.stronghealth.com/services/cancer/images/Forbes-CJordan.pdf • The Rare Seed; Stem Cells Appear to Drive Cancers http://www.stronghealth.com/services/cancer/images/ScienceNews-CJordan.pdf • How to Kill Cancer So It Doesn't Grow Back: Quest Seems as Elusive as Hercules's Second Labor http://www.stronghealth.com/services/cancer/images/WashingtonPost-CJordan.pdf • Stem Cells: The Real Culprits in Cancer? http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=000B1BED-0C0A-1498- 8C0A83414B7F0000&pageNumber=5&catID=2 Life Sciences Learning Center – Cancer Education Project 2 Copyright © 2007, University of Rochester May be copied for classroom use Stem Cells and Cancer Stem Cells and Cancer - Part 1 PowerPoint Presentation At the end of the PowerPoint presentation, you should be able to answer the following questions. 1. Describe two differences between normal stem cells and the other cells in your body? 2. In what ways do normal stem cells contribute to maintaining homeostasis? 3. Describe two differences between normal stem cells and cancer stem cell. 4. How do scientists identify cancer stem cells? 5. How might cancer stem cells originate? 6. How might cancer stem cells can lead to the reoccurrence of tumors. 7. Why are current radiation and chemotherapy treatments not always effective in preventing the reoccurrence of cancer? Life Sciences Learning Center – Cancer Education Project 3 Copyright © 2007, University of Rochester May be copied for classroom use Stem Cells and Cancer 8. How might knowledge of cancer stem cells be applied to developing new cancer therapies? 9. What questions might scientists ask to help them understand how to develop new cancer therapies that target cancer stem cells? 10. A researcher discovered a drug that kills cancer stem cells, but not normal stem cells. Her fellow scientists congratulate her and tell her that she can now consider her job done. The researcher insists that more research is needed because it is important to discover HOW the drug kills cancer stem cells. Provide one reason why this additional research would be important. 11. Use your creativity to illustrate what you learned about cancer stem cells. Draw a cartoon strip (series of frames) that includes information from your answers to either: • Questions 3, 4 and 5, or • Questions 6 and 7, or • Questions 8 and 9. Life Sciences Learning Center – Cancer Education Project 4 Copyright © 2007, University of Rochester May be copied for classroom use Stem Cells and Cancer Teacher Instructions - Part 2 The Bad Seed: Rare stem cells appear to drive cancers In this homework or class activity, students read an article on cancer stem cell research and answer questions based on this article. 1. Provide (for each student) one copy of Part 2: The Bad Seed - Rare stem cells appear to drive some cancers. 2. Ask students to read the article and use the information to answer the five questions at the end of the article. Life Sciences Learning Center – Cancer Education Project 5 Copyright © 2007, University of Rochester May be copied for classroom use Stem Cells and Cancer Stem Cells and Cancer - Part 2 The Bad Seed: Rare stem cells appear to drive some cancers Directions: Read the article and analyze the diagrams. Use the information in the article and diagrams to answer the 5 questions at the end of the article. While some brain tumors are treatable, many reoccur despite the best efforts of physicians. A neurosurgeon may carefully cut out every visible sign of a brain tumor, but new cancer cells may arise to take the original tumor's place. The cancer may survive toxic chemotherapy drugs and intense beams of radiation, two powerful weapons that kill rapidly dividing cells and suppress the growth of many tumors. Why are many brain tumors and other cancers so difficult to treat? The answer may lie in a few. select tumor cells that have the capacity to divide repeatedly to form new cancerous tumors. These cells are known as “cancer stem cells” because they are similar, in some ways, to normal stem cells. Normal stem cells are found in adult tissues as well as in the developing embryo. Stem cells are defined by their “pluripotency”— their ability to divide and give rise to cells that can go on to become many different kinds of cells. Stem cells divide unevenly; they divide to form another stem cell (self-renewal) and a cell called a “progenitor cell.” The progenitor cell cannot form another stem cell, but it can go on to divide a number of times and give rise to other kinds of cells that have different functions such as red blood cells or white blood cells (Fig 1). The process of forming different (specialized) kinds of cells is called “differentiation.” Adult stem cells are responsible for maintaining homeostasis by replacing damaged cells. For example, without blood stem cells, there would be no way of replacing damaged or dead blood cells. Self Renewal Stem Cell Figure 1. Blood forming stem cell in the bone marrow divides to form a new stem cell and a progenitor cell. A progenitor cell can then divide and differentiate to Stem Cell Progenitor Cell form specialized types of blood cells. Cell division and differentiation Red Blood Platelet White Cell Blood Cell Life Sciences Learning Center – Cancer Education Project 6 Copyright © 2007, University of Rochester May be copied for classroom use Stem Cells and Cancer It is important for stem cell division to be tightly controlled. For example, if too much cell division by the stem cell occurs, the body can become overwhelmed with RBC’s. This leads to a condition known as polycythaemia in which very thick blood increases the danger of forming blood clots. However, if too little cell division occurs, the body does not have enough RBC’s to supply oxygen to all its cells. For some kinds of cancer, researchers have harvested cancer cells from a tumor, separated them (Fig 2, A), and found that roughly one cancer cell in a million has the ability to regrow a tumor when transplanted into a new location (Fig 2, B). Researchers concluded that these rare cells could be considered cancer stem cells. Researchers are able to identify these cells by distinctive proteins on their cell surfaces, and are now racing to identify cancer stem cells in skin, lung, pancreatic, ovarian, prostate, and many other cancers. Figure 2 Figure 2. Tumor cells that survive transplantation and form a new tumor are called cancer A stem cells. B Cancer stem cells are like normal stem cells in that they can self-renew. However, cancer stem cells have lost many of the cell division controls under which normal stem cells operate. Because cancer stem cells do not control their cell division properly, they may give rise to tumors. In addition, the progeny of cancer stem cells do not differentiate properly. The progeny tend to be relatively “immature” or unspecialized and do not function as they should in carrying out normal body functions. Life Sciences Learning Center – Cancer Education Project 7 Copyright © 2007, University of Rochester May be copied for classroom use Stem Cells and Cancer Treatment for cancer has typically involved targeting cells that divide rapidly, which is how most of the cells in a tumor behave (Fig 3, A).
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